Shelving is used extensively for stocking and storing products or merchandise in a variety of stores. Many stores simply employ shelves on which merchandise is stocked. In such stores, if the shelves are not at eye level, it is difficult for the customer to see the items being displayed, if they are not located adjacent the front edge of the shelf. It is desirable for merchandise to be displayed at the front of the shelf so that the customer can see the merchandise and be induced to purchase such merchandise. Also, such shelves make it difficult to rotate product, i.e., move the older stock to the front of the shelf and position newer stock behind the older stock. Rotating products is an important consideration, if the goods are perishable or are subject to becoming stale.
Numerous forward feed devices have been proposed to automatically move an item forward on a shelf, as the item before it is removed. These devices generally fall into one of three categories. The first category includes inclined tracks, which rely on gravity to feed, slide or roll products forward. A second category employs conveyor belts, which still use gravity to effect forward movement. A third category, which has become popular in recent years, uses spring biased paddles, in a pusher system to feed the product forward on a horizontally oriented shelf. Such pusher systems have been found useful for a variety of merchandise.
Forward feed devices are usually associated with divider walls. Normally, a divider wall is located on either side of a pusher, mounted on a track, (i.e., a pusher system), so as to maintain the merchandise in rows. In certain designs, both the pusher system and the divider wall are mounted to at least a front rail or front mounting member of the merchandising system, in order to allow a proper spacing of the pusher tracks and the divider walls on a shelf. In some known systems, the divider walls are separate from the pusher tracks. In others, the divider walls and the pusher tracks are of one piece. In either case, the divider walls and pusher tracks are, in some designs, slidably mounted on the front rail or mounting member. In other designs, one or both are fixedly mounted in relation to the front rail. In still other designs, both a front rail and a rear rail are employed and one or both of the pusher tracks and the divider walls are either fixedly secured to one or both of the front rail and the rear rail, or slidably mounted thereon.
Problems remain, however, with both the forward feed devices and the divider walls. As to the forward feed devices, almost universally today these are made from some type of plastic in an injection molding operation. However, the moldings are fairly complex and, thus, the die to make them is complicated and expensive. It would be desirable to develop a track of a simple design which would be easier to mold and yet have sufficient rigidity to resist the stresses and strains imposed on the track during use. With regard to the divider walls, these are normally of a single width. That width, however, may be too wide for certain thin merchandise items offered for sale, such as a row of tooth brushes or small bottles of paint for model kits, such as cars, airplanes, boats and the like. Accordingly, it has been considered desirable to develop a new and improved merchandising system which would overcome the foregoing difficulties and others, while providing better and more advantageous overall results.